In 1910, Louis began purchasing orange groves in the Redlands, California and considerable acreage at Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula, a development by the Pacific Improvement Company designed to attract the wealthy.

A service was held at the Cathedral of St. Paul, and he was buried in the Hill family section at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

[1] During the first few years after completing his education, Louis studied Minnesota’s northern Mesabi Range where iron ore deposits had been found.

Louis expanded his interests far beyond railroads: he was at the forefront of the oil and auto transport industries and was a major player in land development in Montana and California, in finance, and in copper mining.

He maintained an interest in the American Indian tribes of Montana and became a collector of Blackfoot material, now housed in the Science Museum of Minnesota.